The Best Point Guard-Chapter 72 - 7: I Can Tell Who the Superstar Is at a Glance

Chapter 72: Chapter 7: I Can Tell Who the Superstar Is at a Glance

Grover really liked Su Xi. In fact, he was liking Su Xi more and more.

No, that wasn’t right. He practically adored Su Xi.

Although, it wasn’t *that* kind of love.

But it was close.

They were ’thick as thieves,’ and Grover poured all his passion into Su Xi. They even lived in adjacent rooms, and Grover prepared a nutritional meal for Su Xi every day... Although it was disgusting, it really was nutritious.

The reason Grover was so fond of Su Xi was that he saw infinite potential in him, the starting point for a new, glorious Chapter in his own career.

LeBron James was a monster, no doubt. His talent was historic, and his obvious physical gifts might even have been the best in history.

But what did that mean for a trainer?

’All I’m doing is refining his control over his various talents.’

Su Xi was different.

The kid improved every single day, and his recovery ability was every trainer’s dream. He could be worked like a dog until he was dead on his feet, but after a ten, or at most twenty-minute break, he’d be right back to his starting condition.

Moreover, Su Xi’s talent was improving before his very eyes.

And the thing that delighted Grover the most was... Su Xi’s latent talents were exceptional.

This meant... Su Xi could achieve greater technical success than James. In fact, Su Xi’s ball-handling was already better than LeBron James’s. As for shooting, the two were about the same—at an NBA level, they were both on the edge of a passing grade.

But Grover had more confidence in Su Xi because his hands were huge, even bigger than James’s. He thought of Jordan more than once. The key was that when Su Xi palmed the ball with one hand, his control over it was even stronger than Jordan’s.

As everyone knows, many people can palm a basketball, but the only one who could grip the ball and whip it around wildly without losing control was Michael Jordan.

Now, you had to add Su Xi to that list.

"Coach, I’m paying more. Why are you always with Su Xi?"

On the fifth day, LeBron James finally couldn’t help but complain, "I’m the one who hired you. We spent 150,000 USD."

Uh...

Only then did Grover remember that he had indeed been neglecting James a little.

His mind raced, his brain working at high speed. Then, with a smile plastered on his face, he said, "LeBron, it’s because your fundamentals are better. You have the greatest talent in history. But your ’Law’ needs more help. You don’t want Jack to stagnate, do you? Besides, Justin and I review your training results every day. I’m certain you’re in the fast lane."

"But Jack..." Grover spread his hands, feigning a look of difficulty.

James nodded. ’He’s right,’ he thought. ’The talent gap between Jack and me is huge. Although he’s amazing in some ways, he still needs a lot more training.’

James’s mood shifted from indignant to pleased. He said, "You definitely need to help my ’Law’ properly. But this afternoon, ESPN is sending a media crew for an interview. You need to be by my side the whole time. After they leave, you can go help Jack."

"Also, you need to repeat what you just said to the reporters."

LeBron’s request was very direct.

Americans are like that, lacking the subtle style of the Chinese. Besides, James was the ’King.’ Grover was the trainer he hired. Was it too much to ask for a little cooperation?

"Of course. My King," Grover said obediently.

James was especially pleased.

Grover had long known that as long as he said a few nice things, LeBron would be happy, and the work would go more smoothly.

In contrast, Su Xi wasn’t so easy to please. Although the entire gym, all of Cleveland, and the whole United States knew that LeBron James was the chosen one, in Grover’s eyes, Su Xi had a better disposition and was more focused on doing the hard things.

Su Xi’s dedication to training was beyond Grover’s imagination. He never complained, no matter how disgusting the nutritional meals were, how heavy the training load was, or how difficult the drills were. You couldn’t read any emotion on his face.

In fact, LeBron James was already among the hardest-working players Grover had ever seen. If it weren’t for Su Xi, he would be praising him effusively every day.

After just a few days together, Grover knew that Su Xi had lofty ambitions. He wasn’t content with being ordinary, and he definitely didn’t have the personality to play second fiddle to anyone.

That’s why he found it amusing every time LeBron James tried to recruit Su Xi. He thought, ’If LeBron and Su Xi really ended up on the same team, it’s hard to say who would take control of the locker room first, even if LeBron’s talent is much greater right now.’

And interestingly, for people who didn’t know basketball, if Su Xi and LeBron James stood together and you asked who the superstar was... the answer would be unanimous.

Something like that had happened on the third day of the training camp. A little kid and his 17-year-old sister came into the gym, walked straight to Su Xi to ask for an autograph and a photo, and even asked LeBron to hold the camera for them. (This directly led to a security upgrade at the gym; now, not even a stray fly could get in.)

Su Xi was just too handsome, too masculine. He had an indescribable charm. One look and you could tell he was a ’real man,’ brimming with male hormones.

He had sensed this same feeling from Jordan before. But Jordan was nowhere near as handsome as Su Xi.

Handsomeness is also a talent.

"Jack, what I just said to LeBron was just for work," Grover explained quietly to Su Xi after walking over.

Su Xi raised an eyebrow slightly and said, "You don’t need to explain that to me."

Hm?

Grover’s heart skipped a beat. He felt a strange sense of loss. Then, during training, he said again, "Jack, I want to invite you to my training camp in Chicago. There’s more professional equipment there, a hundred times better than this place."

Su Xi was regulating his breathing. He was inclined to agree.

"I won’t charge you a lot, just like now, okay? I might even give you a discount," Grover continued. "But when you get famous, you have to help me with publicity."

"Oh, right. After this month is over and the NBA offseason begins, a lot of A-list stars will come to our facility. You can do contact drills with them. They aren’t like LeBron; they’re not worried about getting injured," Grover added.

Su Xi immediately agreed. "Okay, no problem."

...

In the afternoon, a large group from ESPN arrived. They set up their cameras, filmed James’s training, and conducted a comprehensive interview.

Su Xi didn’t participate. He was on the other side, intensifying his own training.

The new training assistant, Gray, was helping him, while Grover and his assistants were over there training James and going through some staged photo-op moves.

Gray asked Su Xi, "Jack, why don’t you go get some camera time? It would be great for your publicity."

Su Xi replied, "I’m here to train. The results of training show up in the game, not in telling opponents and the audience how hard I’ve trained beforehand. That’s meaningless. The results speak for themselves."

"Of course, LeBron needs this kind of publicity. He loves the spotlight," Su Xi added calmly. "I don’t."

Su Xi’s words made Gray very excited. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Rod, who was on the other side recording training data, felt the same way.

They had all joined the training camp later.

Only a few people knew their true identities.

Gray was a professional trainer from Nike.

Rod was a senior data analyst from Adidas.

But right now, neither of them was here in an official capacity, and they were unaware of each other’s situations.

Their collaboration was going very well; they were even on the verge of becoming friends.

...

"Hey, Jack, come over here!"

Just then, James waved at Su Xi. He turned to the camera and said, "That’s my new little bro, the MOP from the NCAA. We train together. My nickname is the King, and his is the Law. It couldn’t be more perfect. We’re a match made in heaven."

"Did you guys know? The King of Babylon issued the Hammurabi Code, carved on black basalt, more than thirty-seven hundred years ago."

...

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